Sheriff: Man says he sexually assaulted child for 12 years

May 17, 2018

ROWLESBURG, W.Va. (AP) — Authorities say a West Virginia man walked into a sheriff’s office and told an officer he sexually assaulted a child for more than a decade.

News outlets cite a criminal complaint that says 51-year-old Dewayne Franklin Watring came to the Preston County Sheriff’s Office on Monday and told Lt. J.H. Bryan he assaulted the victim more than 100 times, from 1997 until 2009 or 2010.

According to the complaint, the abuse began when the child was 6.

The complaint says the assaults included sexual intercourse and oral sex and took place in Preston County and elsewhere. Bryan says he interviewed a witness who reported witnessing an assault in 2005.

Watring is charged with felony sexual abuse and is being held on $500,000 bond.